Friday’s Endnotes – 12/04/15

Finn on Deontological Justifications of Intellectual Property — Very broadly speaking, IP is justified on two grounds: effects-based, or consequentialist grounds, and rights-based, or deontological grounds. A recent Mark Lemley article attempted to argue that deontological justifications are illegitimate. Here, Finn responds that Lemley’s arguments are based on logical fallacies.

CPIP Publishes White Paper on Copyright Principles and Priorities to Foster a Creative Digital Marketplace — The Center for Protection of Intellectual Property’s white paper lays out principles that Congress should consider as it continues its review of copyright law as well as a number of priorities it should focus on. The paper is available here (PDF).

YouTube wants to compete with Netflix, seeks movie and TV show deals — But not user-generated content.

This Photographer is Paying it Forward with $10,000 from Copyright Infringers — “Yunghi Kim, a decorated photojournalist and 20 year member of Contact Press Images, is bringing more than turkey to Thanksgiving this year: she’s donating $10,000 to create ten one-time grants of $1,000 with money that she has received ‘from fees recovered from unauthorized use of my work.'”

Op-ed: John Degen on copyright and the authorship of Anne Frank — Degen responds to “what really should be a non-story”: a recent attempt by the Swiss foundation that holds the copyright in The Diary of Anne Frank to extend the duration of protection in the work, which caused a good deal of consternation among copyright skeptics. Degen explains why this is not a “terrible injustice.”

How YouTube Pays Artists by East Bay Ray — The Dead Kennedys co-founder writes, “YouTube is taking almost twice the “old evil” music companies’ cut, for basically doing no more than hosting on a server…  And if you leave it, the businessmen at Google still make big money because they do not have to get your consent to ‘monetize’ anyone’s files. Or photos. Or life. Yes anyone, including you. There’s a loophole in the law. That can be corrected.”

The Return of “In-Camera” Effects in Krampus & The Force Awakens — While not necessarily inferior to CGI effects, some filmmakers and fans do hold a particular reverence for practical effects. The Credits highlights two upcoming films that make heavy use of such effects.

Google’s DMCA Publicity Stunt — “A ‘game changer?’ Not even close. This new program really changes nothing since you can count on one hand the people who might benefit from it. The new policy is really nothing more than a publicity stunt, designed to encourage more people to upload to YouTube videos of dubious legality, while at the same time acting as an intimidation tactic to discourage the filing of valid takedown notices. Google takes this action for one reason only: to protect its bottom line.”